Garlic breath

Chopping raw garlic releases a number of volatile sulfur compounds. Of these, allyl methyl sulphide is the main culprit.In addition, our body is bad at breaking down allyl methyl sulphide and more gets made after garlic is consumed. The compound is passed into the blood, and eventually will exit our body through our sweat and breath, leaving the notorious garlic…

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I had a dream

An experiment carried out this year showed that rats actually “dream” when faced with the prospect of future rewards! Researchers placed rats in a location where they could see food, but not reach it, then let them rest in a separate room, and finally allowed them to walk to the food and enjoy it at…

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Hot and cold

In an experiment done by the TV show “Trust Me I’m A Doctor”, it was found that eating cold pasta reduced the rise in blood sugar after a meal, and eating reheated pasta gave an even lower rise in blood sugar! The theory is that this effect is because the process of cooling and reheating…

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Survival of the laziest

Despite the fact that their digestive system digests plants poorly, Pandas are still quite happy living off shoots and leaves, thanks partially to their lazy life style. Pandas evolved from bears that eat both plants and meat, and started on their bamboo-only diet about 2 million years ago. Although pandas have lost their taste for…

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Our cells work so hard

Our cells are very specialized and work hard at their jobs! In order to accommodate maximum space for taking up oxygen with haemoglobin, human red blood cells lose their nuclei (which contains DNA) and organelles, such as mitochondria, Golgi apparatus and endoplastmic reticulum. On the other hand, the hard-working white blood cells could end up…

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New body parts?

It’s pretty fascinating that we’re still discovering previously unknown human anatomical features, even in our eyes! Though there is some controversy over whether or not it is a true corneal layer, “Dua’s layer” seems to be a strong region of tissue in the eye. Our eyes aren’t the only place we’re still finding things though,…

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Who could resist …

Have you ever noticed that burning feeling you get from eating spicy food? Capsaicin, the stuff that makes chillies hot, binds to our nociceptiors; nociceptors are also responsible for detecting heat. Also, you might have figured out that drinking water doesn’t really help. That’s because capsaicin does not dissolve well in water, but it does dissolve…

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Fluffy sheep

Wool is covered in a waxy coating known as lanolin. I was so shocked when I found out that sheep don’t really get wet that I felt the need to dedicate a comic to it. I will never be able to count sheep to sleep again! Also, on a semi-related note, clouds are not fluffy…

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Miosis and meitosis

When I was in high school, this is how I remembered the two different words. Mitosis (sounds like my-toe-es) is a process that results in 2 cells that are identical to the original cell. I remembered that by thinking that they both have the full set of chromosomes, just like all my toes are whole…

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Good bacteria vs bad bacteria

Bacteria are not all bad – your body is full of friendly bacteria! Good bacteria are thought to help us stay healthy by: neutralising toxic effects from bad bacteria, stopping bad bacteria from landing on and over-growing in our body (colonising), attacking bad bacteria, training up immune cells, and helping digest food. Scientists noticed that…

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